All Things Fitness: A New Leaf

June 7, 2015

Since leaving London in March I’ve managed to put on a lot of unwanted weight. I could blame commuting, the parentals’ delicious cooking and the amazing array of chocolate and biscuits in the house for this situation. But really I’ve become lazy and it’s 100% my fault. I should be able to summon the willpower to go for a run when I get home at 7pm or make myself get up at 6am to do a DVD. I’ve done it before and I know plenty of people who do it with a lot more responsibilities than I have. I should also be able to summon enough willpower to not reach for a third biscuit or to stop at the second helping of mashed potato. I just haven’t bothered too and I’ve slipped back into those bad habits. So now I’m turning over a new leaf – right at this moment. Not tomorrow, next week or the one after. Today.

So what are the changes that I need to make? Nothing revolutionary as I know that a one-off diet or special way eating won’t work. It’s a permanent change that’s needed.

So here’s my plan.

1) Stop with the consumption of 2 milky lattes a day. I’m back on the Americanos or an iced latte if I really need the milk. That’s 200 calories gone right there.

2) Get back to walking a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. This was something I was doing with no problem in London. After all I was getting the tube and walking everywhere. Now I drive to the station, get the train and then a tube before walking 1 minute to work. So from now on I’m walking to the station every morning and then heading out for a long walk at lunchtime. It’ll do me good to get out at lunchtime anyway!

3) Make lunch. It’s a simple thing to do but I’ve gotten out of this habit recently and Itsu’s sushi has got too tempting! So salads, roasted veggies, fish and chicken need to make a reappearance again!

4) Cut down on the insane amount of sugar I eat, mainly processed stuff. I don’t think a day passes without me eating something of the chocolate, sweet or sugary cereal variety. Or if I’m honest two of them. So from now I’m going to think about what I’m eating and find some better snacks. It’s all too easy to reach for a bag of sweets when I should be picking something that’s good for me like fruit or a healthy snack – like these delicious raw brownies.

5) Exercise exercise exercise. At the moment I’m lucky if I run once a week. This has to change. So as well as my 10,000 steps a day I’m adding in a minimum of fifteen minutes running, circuit training or stationary cycling every day. 15 minutes isn’t hard to fit in every day so shouldn’t be too hard at all. Plus I know once I start such a thing I’ll enjoy it. It’s just about getting into that rhythm!

6) Get better at the tracking of calories on My Fitness Pal. I know being healthy isn’t about calories, but I do find it helpful to track what I eat. However by mid afternoon when I’m only 100 calories away from my goal I tend to give up and start eating whatever I see. This has to stop. I need to track whatever I’m eating and not feel guilty about it, as the point is to be accountable. If I go over one day that’s not the end of the world, I still have to track it. Perhaps this will stop me from ending every day with a handful of biscuits.

So there we go, that’s my plan. I’ll try to keep you all updated on how it’s going on here, over on Instagram and of course on twitter too.